Savudrija lighthouse

Why it is worth your time

The Savudrija lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse on the Adriatic and one of the oldest in this part of Europe: the tower, thirty-six metres tall, was built in 1818 on the order of the Austrian Emperor Francis I, at a time when Trieste was the empire's main port and navigation toward it had to be secured. The legend that goes with the lighthouse is lovely and probably untrue: that an Austrian count had it raised out of love for a Croatian noblewoman he met at a ball in Vienna, who died before the tower was finished.

Something else is verifiable: the tower was the first in the world to use gas light from its own gasworks, a technology that was then a novelty. The lighthouse works to this day, and in the building beside it apartments have been fitted for rent. It is reached by the road from Savudrija, and the approach is open; the tower's interior is not visited, but the platform around it gives a view as far as Piran and, on clear days, to the Alps.